Teaching Twenty-First Century Skills: Implications at System Levels in Australia

Abstract

The question surrounding teaching of twenty-first century skills is no longer why, but instead how. In this regard, there are many unknowns including teacher training, resources, and impact. To address these unknowns, research needs to focus on: What is the skill set educators need to teach the skills? How do they teach the skills? And, what are the implications of doing so? A necessary step in this endeavour is to identify clear definitions of the skills, and develop assessment tools to measure them. Training for educators to interpret the demonstration of skills at varying stages of ability needs to occur. Once skills are better understood, then instructional materials and guided examples of successful implementation can be provided. This chapter presents three examples from Australia of implemention in this emerging area. These examples vary in their approach and their perspectives, ranging across three systems; a professional body, an educational institution, and industry. The goal for each is the same – to support educators to find and implement effective methods to teach the skills.